la vitta mia Posted April 27, 2009 at 06:22 PM Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 at 06:22 PM I m gonna be father in a few days and I wanna tatoo his name Tomás Joaquín. Can anyone translate it into chinese? Thank you very much. Muchas gracias. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofmann Posted April 27, 2009 at 06:43 PM Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 at 06:43 PM Joaquín (lifted by Yahweh) Tomás (twin) 揭孿 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lugubert Posted April 27, 2009 at 08:23 PM Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 at 08:23 PM But first, you should know that names can't be "translated" from any language into any other one. Please please take some time to search this and other sites (like http://www.hanzismatter.com) before deciding something that will be a permanent proof that you don't know the first thing about languages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted April 27, 2009 at 11:16 PM Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 at 11:16 PM Also, have a read of this and this to familiarize yourself with the issues involved in converting non-Chinese names into Chinese characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlecO Posted April 28, 2009 at 12:15 AM Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 at 12:15 AM Are you sure you want that? If you're not Chinese, your son's not Chinese and the name's not Chinese, where's the link? If you read some of the links suggested above you'll realise it won't be an accurate 'translation' or 'transliteration' of your son's name, it'll just be some characters vaguely related by sound or meaning. Chinese isn't some mystical language inherited from the gods. It's just another language which people use to talk about toilet problems and bitch about colleagues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandeX Posted April 29, 2009 at 05:20 AM Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 at 05:20 AM Unfortunately, is seems many people in the world still consider China as a place where magic is a real part of daily life, and everyone still lives like ancient times, training their kungfu and magic fireball shooting power or whatever daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted April 29, 2009 at 03:15 PM Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 at 03:15 PM Or maybe he just thinks that Chinese characters look cool? You're jumping to conclusions that his liking for Chinese characters has anything to do with China as a country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lugubert Posted April 29, 2009 at 04:50 PM Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 at 04:50 PM Anyway, apart from all the hilarious mistakes posted at hanzismatter, my favourite anecdote goes like, A girl dined at a Chinese place, and took a liking to some menu characters. She copied them, and knitted a sweater featuring them. After a while, a kind colleague told her that they meant "This dish is cheap but tasty". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skillphiliac Posted May 1, 2009 at 10:18 PM Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 at 10:18 PM Please, be absolutely sure about whether you want to do this or no. I am browsing ratemyink's "Chinese/Asian" section on a regular basis and believe me, it makes me wonder. So many strange tattoos, so... well, uninspired. Of course, it is adorable you want to carry your son's name on your body, but there just is more to it. I don't condemn people having Hanzi tattoed on their bodies, au contraire, I know a lot having done so and some even look pretty distinguishable from normal Chinese writing (considering what we call "art" or "style"), words derrived from "western" languages don't have to be ugly or unfitting either. But what I really do not like, or, at least frown upon, is the fact that one person after another is casually going to his or her favourite parlor, briefly having a look at an assortment of clichée characters only having a crude (if at all!) translation underneath them, and deciding on one or several of those merely by the looks of respective "pictures". They don't know the least about what they have tattoed, about whether it is correctly done... they can't even say what language it is they have one or more word from, written on their foreheads. Phrases and dialogues like "This is a Japanese letter", "Those are Chinese letters forming my wife's name", "These? They are Chinese Kanji! They mean 'Great Big Star Floating Along The Edge Of The Endless Universe And Beyond Oh Dear God Help Me This Is A Long Long Description I Have Inked Right Above My Beloved Buttcheeks Of Wrath'! - Those two "Chinese Kanji" mean all that stuff?" I have experienced, and I grow tired of them. So please, for both your sake and the sake of others (unless of course you want to contribute to hanzismatter, at least we will profit of your possible mistakes), get to know the language, or the means by which it works, a bit. Ask for guidance, know how it should look etc. Nothing wrong with getting to understand things you seem to be remotely interested in anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandeX Posted May 3, 2009 at 08:26 AM Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 at 08:26 AM After writing that post, the OP never came back to the forum, so perhaps he changed his mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WuHao Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:59 PM Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:59 PM 托马斯 = Tomás Joaquín , I don't know how to speak it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.